Connect

Chocolate Sugar Cookie Recipe {Cut Out Cookies}

This new recipe has been a looong time coming, and I’m so excited to share it with you! Batches and batches of experimentation – playing with flour and delicious cocoa powder amounts, some input from readers over the years (especially Marina who tried a similar version of my sugar cookies – thank you!), and finally, the yummiest chocolate sugar cookie recipe!

I was happy to put the final touches on the recipe for Go Bold With Butter, a must-see baking and savoury recipe resource for those serious about all-natural ingredients and excellent buttery taste. You can find my chocolate sugar cookie recipe here as well, and enjoy all the other mouth watering recipes there!

I have a few notes to share with you about baking cookies in general as well:

Notes:

One of the reasons I experimented with this recipe so much, is that I wanted to find the best ratio of butter to flour etc., to create the perfect cut out cookie which holds its shape. This one definitely does, but no matter what recipe you use, these tips on how to prevent cookies from spreading are important to know.

Use the best quality ingredients you can. The cocoa powder will make a big difference in the final taste of your cookies.

Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of an electric mixer on low to medium speed (Use a paddle attachment). Mix until thoroughly incorporated – for about one minute. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a plastic spatula and mix again for a few seconds more. Over mixing the butter and sugar in this step will cause too much air to be incorporated into the dough. If you’d like a light and fluffy cookie, that’s ideal, however the dough will spread more during baking; not ideal if you’d like the cookie to hold its shape.

Add eggs slowly and mix. Scrape down the bowl with your spatula at least once and mix again.

Add liquid vanilla extract. Stir briefly.

Sift your dry ingredients together. (Flour, cocoa powder and salt).

Add all of the flour mixture to the bowl. Place a large tea towel or two small tea towels between the edge of the bowl and the electric mixer so that the flour won’t escape. Mix on low speed for 3o seconds. Remove the tea towels and observe the dough mixing; when it clumps around the paddle attachment it’s ready. It’s also important at this stage not to over mix the dough.

Roll the dough out between 2 large pieces of parchment paper. Place on a baking sheet and into the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

Roll out the dough further if you need to, and cut out cookie shapes. Place on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Re-roll scraps and repeat.

Put cookie dough shapes back into the fridge for 10 minutes to 1 hour to chill again. They will then hold their shape better when baked.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 176°C.

Bake cookies for 8-12 minutes or until the center of the cookie no longer looks wet. The baking time will depend on the size of your cookie.

My dough was completely awful. It was runny like brownie batter.. not good cookie dough at all. I’m not sure what went wrong, but I’ve baked dozens of batches of vanilla cookie dough and was hoping this would be a good recipe to try for my kids, but it was terrible.

I just made this and mine wasn’t right either. It was not runny but there was no way that I could roll it out. The dough does taste delicious though as I’m eating it on my kitchen floor while drinking champagne. Heartbroken because I was excited to make these.

Hi Heather,
Perhaps it’s the measurements or the butter quality? Baking can be finicky and like a science. If I try new cookie recipes and the dough is too sticky, I just add flour until I like the texture. Glad you liked the taste and hope the baking experience is better next time!

This is the BEST. My go to recipe and always requested by family members. Love the way the dough holds its shape! Also it is worth it to go for the more expensive dutch cocoa. Thanks so much for this amazing recipe!

I was wondering if this recipe is firm enough to use house cutouts as if to make a gingerbread house? If not, what would I change to make a more solid/firm cookie. Not a big fan of gingerbread, but these cookies are similar in color so I thought maybe I could try to make a house using this recipe?

I just finished making these cookies and they turned out beautifully! The first batch was almost eaten by the Kids before the second batch was out of the oven! I’ll definitely be saving this recipe to use again! Thanks!!

I made these as part of my cookie extravaganza I make every holiday for the fam. I have never made a chocolate sugar cookie…no idea why? This recipe is going in my recipe roster though. They were one of the best sugar cookies I have ever made! Thank you a million times for this one!

Made these today and they were amazing.. smells and tastes just like brownies.. the batter wasn’t thin at all but the perfect thickness for rolling out.. I rolled them out pretty thick and they cooked up just perfect and would be perfect for a replacement to gingerbread for a house.. will be making these again.. wish I could post a pic!!

I’m not a huge fan of hard royal icing myself, so I use a higher quality buttercream-style fondant (e.g., Fondarific) or modeling chocolate to decorate these and it tastes wonderful – the perfect amount of sweetness to complement the slight bitterness of chocolate.

This is the best recipe ever. I made it last year and the cookies were such a hit I am making them again. It’s fool proof. Your instructions were spot on. They really keep their shape. It’s amazing and so delicious. THANK YOU!

I am really confused how anyone came out with a runny product, this dough is so thick that it bent my whisk attachment on my Kitchen Aid (my fault, should have used the paddle, thats what I get for being lazy). The dough tasted absolutely delicious! I am going to bake the cookies today, I let the dough hang out in the fridge overnight which of course has caused it to be even more firm. I will likely let it sit out for a little bit to allow it to get more pliable. For those reading about the runny results, dont let that deter you, something had to have gone wrong with their measurements. I can tell by the dough consistency that these are going to make a beautiful cutout cookie.

I made a half batch of these a few weeks ago and used Green and Black’s organic cocoa. I rolled them out 1/4 inch thick. They looked beautiful and tasted fantastic! I have already transferred this recipe to my “favourites” recipe book. I’m planning to make more this weekend and will decorate the snowflake shapes with royal icing, sanding sugar and silver dragees. Thanks for all your work in perfecting this recipe!

I made these last Christmas and I’m making them again now! They are great for cutouts, but I don’t know about a house (mine were soft but chewy like brownies). My little girl can’t wait to decorate them with me again!

Just made another half-batch today, which yielded about 42 4″ snowflakes. Again, everything worked out perfectly. I decorated some with Royal Icing, sanding sugar and silver dragees. See my Instagram posting, jdpb82, for a look if you’d like.

I made these with my girls last night. We chilled them overnight and plan to bake and decorate them today. When I pulled the dough out it is rock hard! I am hoping that it softens up and will be just fine – any tips on softening hard dough quickly? Also, did I chill it too long maybe?

Hi Robbie,
Yes chilling makes dough hard, but it should soften enough to cut in about 15 mins. I actually like cutting my cookies when the dough is cold, I find it easier to cut them (except for small, skinny pieces on detailed cookie cutters, for those I wait until the dough is warmer). After the pieces are cut, if I have time I’ll chill them again until they harden… they keep their shape better when baked that way.

I’ve made this recipe for the past three years and it turns out great every time. I do have a question – could I bake the cookies and then freeze before using royal icing to decorate? I have an event coming up, but I’m not sure I’ll have enough time to bake and then decorate in one weekend 100 football jersey cookies for my son’s banquet! I’m hoping to bake/freeze one weekend and decorate the next.

So I was making cookies to decorate for Christmas and a friend was going to help me decorate them. I had three recipes I was making. This recipe was my third type of sugar cookies. I made the dough and placed it between two sheets of parchment paper and rolled it out. I put it in the freezer to chill for a while. Then I found out my friend needed to postpone. Since things are crazy anyway before Christmas, I left the dough in the freezer where it stayed for a week (and broke into three pieces). I took it out once and let it soften and patched it back up (no big deal) and put it back in the freezer. Several days later I took it out and let it soften a while (didn’t take long). By now it’s already New Years and this cookie dough was so easy to work with, smelled fantastic, looked great and tasted delicious. I really believe this is going to be my “go-to” recipe for cut out cookies. Wonderful! I love them just plain. Thanks for sharing this recipe!

I wanted to do a version of a candy cane for my granddaugther’s birthday since her name starts with a J making a regular sugar cookie twisted with a chocolate sugar cookie but decided the cutout of this would be better. Instead of vanilla can I use almond or caramel extract?

Thank you for sharing your recipe! I’m just beginning my royal icing cookie decorating hobby and trying to learn all I can. Funny, but I was actually more worried to make the cut-outs than I was to decorate them (my mistake!)

These cookies were amazing—no spreading, and absolutely delicious! My husband said they are his new favorite cookie.

I definitely need a lot more royal icing practice though—I need to learn the consistency tricks (so thanks for all the help with that, too.)

I’ll try again next week—Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Practice, practice, practice! ❤️

Hi Alex,
I haven’t tried that one, so am not 100% sure, but I’m guessing that it would work. I would hold off on adding the full amount of flour at first. For example, just add four cups of the flour, mix, and then see if is a wet dough, then add the 5th cup of flour. If it still is a wet dough then add more flour than the recipe calls for.

I’m also guessing the flavour might not be as intense as a cocoa powder. Please let me know how it goes, I would love to know! Thanks!

This recipe tastes fantastic! I’d recommend either rolling it out to the desired thickness before refrigerating or let it warm up a bit after removing it from the fridge to roll it out. It is almost impossible to roll directly out of the fridge. Beautiful consistency and amazing flavour! Will be my go to for chocolate sugar cookies!

I noticed that there is no baking power or baking soda in this recepe. I made them as written. They did not lose their shape and are very dense. I did use the “Special Dark Coco” and they are very chocolate. The dough was sticky. Rolled it out between 2 pieces of parchment paper and chilled and the cut out cookie came off the parchment easily.

Where do I start? I made these for the first time and I followed you recipe EXACTLY…..except we have to eat gluten free in our home, so I used my fantastic cup for cup flour and they came out PERFECT!! I still have tears in my eyes. From another recipe I have an almost exact copy of Oreo filling. For the 1st time in 15 years I had a gluten free oreo that tasted like the original. Such a fantastic chocolate taste, they are great without icing. So if you have any questions about can these be made GF….YES, yes they can. Thank you for this gift.

The GF flour blend I rely on for everything is from Kate Chan’s website glutenfreegobsmacked. Here is a linkhttp://www.glutenfreegobsmacked.com/my-gf-flour-blend/
And if anyone wants to turn your perfect chocolaty cookies into an oreo I used the recipe for the filling from Annalise G. Roberts Gluten free Baking the Classics. And so we have gained a few pounds after eating too many of these cookies!!! Beware.

I have now made these cookies twice and they are beyond delicious !!What I love the most is how easy the recipe is.I can see you some can have a runny dough if you beat the butter to much..I also found that leaving the rolled dough i the fridge longer make the cookies hold their shape.They came out thick and last party,they finished in a blink of an eye!!Thanks for such a great recipe

I love this cookie recipe. I have been making these for about a year now and it’s my go to cookie dough for chocolate.
I add about a tsp of espresso powder to this recipe and sometimes mashed up Oreo cookies chocolate/chocolate or chocolate/vanilla cream.Love this and thank you for posting!

When you scoop the flour, do you dip and sweep or spoon it in to the measuring cup? I found the dough to be very sticky to work with. I used 500 grams of all purpose flour and I think it needs a bit more than that.

There are a lot of factors that could make a difference; the fat content of the butter, temperature of the butter etc. My rule of thumb if I’m making a cut out cookie dough and it’s a bit too sticky, add 1/4 cup of flour at a time until I’m happy with the consistency. Hope that helps!

I am not sure if I sent this (I don’t remember clicking submit). I made the chocolate cut out cookie. My cookies looked just liked the picture, DOUGH WAS WONDERFUL TO WORK WITH. The cookie tasted bitter, strong of chocolate, and dry…though beautiful. I am a good cookie baker for many years and make a lot of candies and cookies for gifts. I checked and went over the recipe to see if I made a mistake. When I saw the 1 and 1/2 cup of cocoa, I thought that was a lot!….and the recipe was wrong but pulled the recipe off my PC again and that was the amount it called for. The only thing I came up with…was Hershey’s powdered cocoa a wrong choice? (the cocoa was dated 2021). The reviews were wonderful! I wish I could taste one someone else made….I am having a hard time accepting that it was my baking that ruined this fabulous looking cookie…smiling. Any suggestions or advice I would love to know about. Please send to my email inman.rosie@cinci.rr.com Merry Christmas and may God bless you and yours.

Hi Courtney,
I’ve always used eggs in my sugar cookies, and this recipe is a version of my sugar cookies. My shortbread cookies don’t have egg though. In this recipe, the liquid helps bind the cookie together.

Redskins: Kirk Cousins beat out Robert Griffin III for the tackling QB job, A move that could signal the end of RG3's tumultuous tenure in wa Amari Cooper jersey cheap. The 2012 Offensive Rookie of the season has been plagued by injuries since leading the Redskins to a division title and tearing knee ligaments in a playoff loss in January 2013. Cousins is 2 7 as a beginner in three seasons playing behind Griffin. Brees carried out 23 of 38 for 147 yards. Graham had three assaults for 42 yards Russell Wilson Jersey Cheap. Darren Sproles led New Orleans with seven captures, A number of check downs. Bright vivid the white kind of is 5 foot 10, 197 pound first year player in view of Auburn. He was in the first place signed by the Packers as a non drafted free agent on May 12 Sean Lee jersey, 2014, But was launched on Aug Tom Brady jersey cheap. 30, 2014. Are all one-of-a-kind, Belichick said of his incredibly Bowls berths. Are kind of like them trevone boykin jersey. A person like them all, But they fluctuate. "Many experts have pretty smooth, Britt agreed. "I thought additionally you can easily a little rougher maybe this week but it felt pretty comfortable day one alfred morris jersey. There is some technique stuff obviously I'm learning and I'll just to be able to work at but I like left guard and being in there deep in the trenches.